The family party, with the addition of Lord Darlingford, Sir James
Lindsey, and his brother, were assembled round the luncheon-table at
Lady Arden's.
Henry Lindsey had been amazingly piqued that morning by Louisa's
reception of Sir James. The little baronet was now seated next to her,
and making, if possible, a greater fool of himself than usual; while, in
consequence of the lesson she had received, she was yielding him her
attention with marked complacency. Henry sat opposite, and trembled
with a mingling of agitation and indignation. He thought he could
already foresee that he was to be deliberately immolated to avarice;
yet, so thoroughly was he the slave of Louisa's beauty and his own
passion, that no worthlessness on her part could have set him free. He
felt, that were she already the wife of his brother, her image might
drive him mad, but that he could not banish it from his imagination.
The hardship of Henry Lindsey's case as a younger brother was
conspicuous, and displayed in a striking manner the evils consequent
upon sacrificing justice to _pride_.
From a boy he had felt much on this subject; but being of a generous,
warm-hearted, liberal nature, he did not long brood over his own
individual wrongs; his mind, however, following the impulse thus
received, though in the first instance from a selfish feeling, gave
itself to the contemplation and discussion of natural rights generally,
till it became enamoured of abstract justice, and learned to apply its
searching test to every subject, especially the all absorbing topic of
the day--Political Economy; while, with his characteristic enthusiasm,
despising the sophisms of expediency, he embraced, without perhaps
sufficient caution, theories which soon caused him to be considered by
his friends a reformer, by his enemies almost a revolutionist, and by
himself the warm advocate of the rights, not of younger brothers only,
but of those whom he emphatically termed the step-children of the
laws--_The People_.
Such were at all times his opinions, while the irritable state of his
mind, at the moment of which we are speaking, added asperity to his
manner of expressing himself, and caused him, in answer to some jesting
remark of Alfred's on the old topic of younger brothers, to give vent to
his feelings in a long, and almost angry political discussion. He
objected, he said, to the law of primogeniture on the ground of its
being a wretched system of monopoly, which placed in the hands of a
simple individual what, if divided, would suffice to restore thousands
of his degraded and oppressed fellow-creatures to the rank of humanity.
The times were gone by when communities, formed for the general weal,
would wilfully sacrifice prosperity to _pride_, and not only parcel out
the whole land to, comparatively speaking, a few families, but the
succession to those lands being limited to the elder branches, allow all
place, preferment, and emolument, to be confined to the younger sons of
the same families, because the land had given them influence; and the
mass of the people to be thus reduced to do the work of the ass and the
mule, and because they cannot also eat their food, the grass and the
thistle, be often in danger of starvation.
The old feudal system itself was better than this: the ancient baron was
at least bound to feed not only his relations but his vassals, and he
did so in his own hall, at his own table. While, now-a-days, a man, as
soon as his father's funeral is over, turns his brothers and sisters out
of doors, to exist as they may, on a pitiful portion, the principal of
which is in general infinitely less than one year's income of the
property, on the scale of which they have been accustomed to live in
their father's time; while the new master permits his servants to
collect their wages by showing the empty baronial hall to strangers at
so much per head, by which creditable means he is himself enabled to
reserve all his rents to stake at hazard in London, or at _rouge et
noir_ in Paris. When parliament is sitting, he must of course attend, to
vote against any infringement on his monopoly, which the enlightened
spirit of the times may chance to propose. Thanks, however, to the
Reform Bill, the holders of the monopolies are no longer our sole
law-givers; we have now some _chance_ of justice _one time or another_.
"Besides," he added, "to return to the ancient baron, he was not only
bound to feed his retainers, but in time of war to provide the
government with a certain number of them, fitly clothed and armed;
which was virtually bearing the burdens of the state. The baron was, in
point of fact, but the trustee to a certain property, which property was
to feed a certain number of the population, and to contribute its due
proportion to the defence of the community. Instead of this, when the
feudal system becomes dangerous to government the barons are forbidden
to arm, and exonerated from feeding their retainers; yet, the
trust-property left in their hands for _pocket-money_, while their late
followers are not only turned out on the wide world to starve, but the
taxes necessary to maintain the army which the barons are forbid to
provide, are levied on the _bare palms_ of the _hands_ of the thus
turned out and starving vassals; and not satisfied with this injustice,
those who thus keep possession of the trust-lands, have arrived at
literally billeting their younger sons on those said vassals, thus
turned out and starving."
"Explain! explain!" cried Lord Darlingford, "How can you make that out?"
"Are not," replied Henry, "the salaries and pensions of all the posts
and sinecures they hold paid by means of taxes, a great proportion of
which are levied on industry? Is this as it should be? If the _pride_ of
the great demand that their properties shall be inherited by their elder
sons, and the offspring of that _pride_--if _false necessity_, require
that places and sinecures be provided for their younger sons, should not
the _rich co-operate_ in raising a fund for the payment of the salaries
of such, and not grind their thousands by pittances from the _real
necessities_ of the _poor_?"
"What then is your panacea for so many crying ills?" asked Lord
Darlingford, "Do you call on us to render up our trusts and proclaim an
Agrarian law?"
"No; those whose motives are honest dare not go such lengths. This would
be to resolve society into its mere elements, to open the flood-gates of
anarchy, and awake the savage spirit of wanton plunder. Many large
landed properties too have been purchased with the wages of industry; so
that besides the horrible convulsions attendant upon the dissolution of
the social system, there would be no such thing as drawing the line; to
avoid, therefore, worse evils, I would allow the 'frightful
disparities,' as an able writer of the day terms them, to exist till
industry, unchecked, unladen, could work out for itself a gradual
emancipation from the bondage of want. But I would not add to evils I
dare not too suddenly remedy! I would not require the children of Israel
to make bricks without straw! I would not lay the burdens of the state
on shoulders already weighed down by nature's demand for daily bread. I
would exempt from the whole weight of taxation the labourer, whether of
brain or limb; he has no stake in the stability of the state; he can
carry his head or his hand wherever he goes. He who keeps back the
hire of the labourer is denounced in holy writ: I would not be worse
than such, and rob the labourer of his hire. I would, therefore, repeal
every tax _direct_ and _indirect_, which now exists, and substitute for
_all_ a graduated property-tax, on _independent_ property _only_,
trifling in amount, say one per cent., where the property was small;
and doubling, trebling, nay, quadrupling, if necessary, as it rises.
What, if a man with thirty thousand per annum, pay twenty thousand, can
he not live on ten? or if the man with two hundred thousand per annum,
pay one hundred and fifty thousand, can he not live on fifty? This, some
people are not ashamed to answer me would be robbing the rich; while
they talk as loudly as vaguely of the sacredness of property and vested
rights. But I would answer such, that starvation in the midst of plenty,
on the plea of the sacredness of justice, is a practical blasphemy!
What, therefore, relief from taxation did not effect for the absolutely
destitute, I would complete by an amended system of poor-laws;--such
assessments, however, to be levied on independent property only."
"Poor-laws are bad things," interrupted Sir James, who having finished
his luncheon, was now lolling on a sofa, "they make the common people so
lazy."
"As long as industry is not taxed in support of idleness," answered
Henry, "the lazy rich man is entitled to no commiseration for being
compelled to assist his brother, the lazy poor man! Poor-laws," he
added, turning to Lord Darlingford, "as far at least as food goes, I
consider the most sacred of vested rights. God said, 'Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the
earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding
seed, to you it shall be for meat.'"
"But you allow," said his lordship, "that many of the great landed
properties you would tax thus heavily are purchased with the produce of
the owner's own exertions; state your reasons for giving immunity to
present industry and not to past?"
"Because," replied Henry, "when once a man has realized property he has
acquired a stake in the country, a stake in the stability of the
government; his property requires protection, whether from the foreign
enemy or the home depredator; and, therefore, he should pay for such
protection. If a man desires a wall round his garden, who pays for
building the wall? The man who owns the garden! If a man wishes to
insure his premises against fire, who pays the insurance? The man whose
premises are guaranteed. Would either of these persons dream of calling
a parish meeting to demand of their neighbours as a right, that they
should subscribe towards the expense so incurred; nay, that every
pauper subsisting on some shilling or two per week, should be compelled
to pay two-pence for his penny loaf until the sum was made up; yet, such
is the spirit of every tax, direct or indirect, levied on any thing but
independent property. The machinery of government is the garden-wall of
the landed interest, the insurance office of the fund-holder. Any tax,
therefore, levied on those who have neither land nor money is a crying
injustice, except, indeed," he added with bitter irony, "we admit of a
small pole-tax to keep down burking. It is, no doubt, the houseless,
nameless, friendless wretch, who has no one to ask what is become of
him; the poor creature, who has nothing to be protected but the limbs
and sinews he was born with, who runs the greatest risk of contributing
these to the promotion of science."
"But," observed Lord Darlingford, "it is not the very destitute who pay
taxes."
"I beg your pardon," said Henry, "indirect ones they do. If the beggar
in the street succeeds in exciting the compassion of the passenger, and
receives one penny, ere he can appease his hunger with a mouthful of
bread, do not the corn laws, by doubling the price of the loaf, exact
from him one half of the penny so obtained? And is not his mite, thus
cast into the treasury, like that of the poor widow in the Gospel, taken
from his _want_; and, therefore, more than all they (_the rich_) did
cast in of their abundance?"
"Oh, it is all but too true!" said Lady Arden, feelingly. "I do think
your scheme of taxation would be but justice. Willoughby would certainly
have a great deal to pay; but he can surely afford it better than poor
creatures who have nothing but what they earn, or what they beg. I see
the subject now in quite a new light. I have always been in the habit of
thinking people _poor_ who had but _one_ or _two_ thousands a-year; and
I never took the trouble of considering that there was any difference
between hundreds a-year and nothing."
"How would you apportion this property-tax of yours?" asked Lord
Darlingford; "and how ensure its being sufficient for the exigencies of
the state?"
"On a graduated scale, as I have already said," replied Henry, "from
justice to individuals: let those who have the largest property to
ensure, pay, as at all other insurance offices, the most; but, as to
details and calculations, I leave those to Mr. Hume, or some of the
multiplication table people; I only advocate the principle. Indeed, one
of the great recommendations of this plan is, that the principle once
established, the work is done: when those who tie up the burdens have to
carry them, they may be trusted to find scales of sufficient nicety in
which to weigh them: we need, in that case, no longer call for
estimates, or petition against sinecures; nay, we may give the very
voting of the subsidies to the _Lords_ themselves!--many of whom, I make
no doubt, would forthwith become immortalised by the economical or
'_twopenny halfpenny_' ingenuity, developed in the devising of future
budgets. '_Twopence halfpenny_,' I would have the noble lords to know,
though no object to them, is a sum which many of their destitute
fellow-creatures would, at this moment, receive with joy of heart! Then,
remember, in further recommendation of this scheme, the millions a-year
of unprofitable expense that would be saved to the nation, by having but
one instead of innumerable taxes to levy."
"I don't think," said Sir James, looking as if he had made a discovery,
"that the people with large fortunes will like this law of yours,
Henry."
"Many people, too," replied Henry, contemptuously, "don't like paying
their Christmas bills."
Alfred, who had been looking over a morning paper near a window, and
from time to time lending a share of his attention to the disputants,
now joined them.
"We cannot, I think," he said, "blame any particular government, or set
of men, for the ills of which you complain. The fault is in human
nature; and the remedy, if there be one, is only to be found in laying
step by step the wisest general restrictions we can on individual
selfishness. The advance of civilization has already placed a salutary
check on plunder by force; it remains for the march of intellect to
discover one for plunder by stratagem. But we must be cautious; in
desiring the higher steps of the ladder of wisdom and virtue, we must
not undervalue those we have attained, and in our headlong haste,
stumble; and, like our neighbours of the continent, fall back on the
frightful abyss of anarchy that lays below! 'Tis well to rise in
excellence; I hate the cant of dreading all chance: but, to keep to the
simile of the ladder, let us take care that the lifting foot be firmly
placed on the step above, ere the standing one be removed from the step
below."
"Is there not some danger," said Lord Darlingford, "of a property-tax
sending capital out of the kingdom?"
"It must be very easy," replied Henry, "for the inventors of all sorts
of protecting duties to devise a means of meeting that difficulty, by
some ingeniously arranged tax on the exportation of property, whether
income or capital, with a tremendously deterring fine on any attempt at
imposition; and minor exactments, to hunt evasion through all its
windings. There might, also," he added, "be an alien tax, to prevent the
foreign artizan from sharing the immunity from taxation, purchased by
our own rich for our own poor."
"Is there not some danger," said Lady Arden, "that the deteriorated
incomes of the great, by obliging them to lessen their establishments
and expenditure, would throw many people out of employment, and so
increase the numbers of the poor?"
"I should think not," answered Henry; "recollect there would be the same
property in the kingdom, only in more general and more equal
circulation. The servants dismissed, and the luxuries foregone by the
few, would in all probability be more than compensated by the increased
establishments and more numerous comforts of the many, though each only
in a small degree. The standard of splendour might be lowered, but that
of comfort would be raised. The change, too, is likely to be in favour
of home productions: the overflow of inordinate wealth, the _too much_
of the few, is frequently squandered on luxuries obtained from abroad;
while the fertilizing sufficiency, the _enough_ of the many, would
probably be expended on comforts produced at home.
"I do not, however," he added, "mean to assume the character of a
prophet, or even to argue the point of future consequences; I take
higher ground, and end every such discussion with the same appeal to
duty:
"Let each generation do what is clearly justice in their own day, and
leave the future to the All-wise Disposer of events.
"If there were, indeed, a theory through the mazes of which moral
rectitude knew no path, we might be excusable in taking calculation for
our guide; but when our road lies before us, indicated by duty's
steadily pointing finger, we are not entitled to balance ere we proceed,
even though it should be where four frequented highways meet."
Mrs. Dorothea, the sisters, and Sir James, had got tired of politics,
and wandered into the garden. Henry, perceiving that Sir James was still
in attendance on Louisa, became impatient, broke off the conversation
abruptly, and following them, joined her, saying, "Lord Darlingford is
too prudent a politician for me. I hate prudence and calculation, and
worldly mindedness," he added, with impetuosity, and a provoked and
mortified tone of voice, which Louisa was at no loss to comprehend. "The
present artificial state of society," he proceeded, "has banished into
the poet's dream every thing worth living for!--there alone all things
deserving the ambition of an intellectual being now hold their unreal
existence! Beauty has become a snare--feeling a folly, or a curse!--love
a farce, and lovely woman, nature's most cunning workmanship, a _toy_,
a _trinket_, which the rich man may draw out his purse and
purchase!!!--heart and all!" he subjoined, in an under and somewhat
softened voice, for Louisa had looked round, and their eyes had met for
a moment. "Is it so?" he continued; "or are the beautiful looking
deceptions now made to suit the _market_ for which they are intended,
_without hearts_?"